Wednesday, June 29, 2011

FOODFIC: Forgive My Fins - Tera Lynn Childs

Before I even started reading, I was obviously dying to know what a mermaid eats. Okay, so maybe Lily Sanderson is only half-mermaid (and half-human) but tomayto-tomahto, just feed the girl already!

On page ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-SEVEN (!?!), I finally got some food in this fiction…and it was worth the wait. Thalissinian (of our mer-princess’s home realm) delicacies include: mounds of scrambled eel eggs, toasted sea fans, strips of pickled kelp, and a variety of local fruit mixed with some land fruit. I loved the scrambling of eel eggs, and the kelp pickled in the briny sea – very clever.

Then Lily also tells us: “And, if you love sushi – I dare you to name a mermaid who doesn’t love sushi – we have just about every variety of nigiri, maki, and inari you could dream of.” Of course my gut reaction to that was, Is it just me, or is that a little cannibalistic? Anyway, it’s really not the what that got me with the sushi as much as the how; she dips in herspicy tuna maki in thick ginger sauce. Underwater? However, I dutifully suspended my disbelief, and moved on. (Don’t ask why I could easily accept an entire undersea kingdom, but got so hung up on dip.)

But as soon as I forgot about the food and refocused on the romantic complications, Quince gets grilled tuna steaks! I struggled with that one for awhile until I remembered that at that point they’re on an island, so there could be some sort of flame-cooking apparatus, perhaps provided by Calliope, the couples counselor. (No, she has no relevance to this discussion, but y’all know my affinity for the name so I had to include it.)

Ocean-bottom line: “Forgive My Fins” served up some good fictional food and doesn’t need any forgiveness from me.

*Obviously, I timed my post to coincide with this week's release of the sequel: Fins Are Forever.